Iraq's Shi'ite-led government ordered the arrest of the country's top Sunni cleric on Thursday on suspicion of "supporting terrorism," a move that could raise sectarian tensions further amid mounting violence.An arrest warrant has been issued for Harith al-Dari, the head of the Muslim Clerics Association, a vocal defender of the once dominant Sunni minority's interests, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, a Shi'ite, told Iraqiya state television. Shi'ite leaders have been up in arms about Dari this month, accusing him of advocating violence in televised comments that they said appeared to justify al Qaeda attacks in Iraq. It was not clear whether Dari, who has been abroad lately, was in the country. He was not available for immediate comment. ... http://abcnews.go.com

A tornado ripped apart a mobile home park in this tiny riverside community early Thursday, killing at least seven people and raising the death toll from a devastating band of thunderstorms sweeping across the South to 11.Officials searching for victims amid the wreckage of Riegelwood cautioned that death toll still could rise.Two other storm victims died in car crashes early Thursday as heavy rain pelted North Carolina, a utility worker checking powerlines during the storm was electrocuted in South Carolina, and a man died Wednesday when a tornado struck his home in Louisiana as the storms began their path of destruction across the South.In North Carolina, dozens of homes were destroyed when the tornado struck the Cape Fear River community of Riegelwood, about 20 miles west of the coastal city of Wilmington....http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2006-11-16-midatlantic-storms_x.htm?csp=34

Suns that exploded 9 billion years ago have helped prove that a mysterious force called dark energy was pushing the universe apart even back then, scientists reported on Thursday.They still do not understand dark energy — which appears to be everywhere, pushing everything apart with its repulsive power. But now they may be on the right track. "We think this is a significant clue in the quest to understand what is probably one of the most, if not the most, pressing questions in physics," said astrophysicist Adam Riess of Johns Hopkins University and NASA's Space Telescope Institute. And their findings, made with the help of the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope, suggest that Albert Einstein was right yet again when he predicted that an energy force, which he called the Cosmological Constant, permeated the universe. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2659158

The Vatican on Thursday reaffirmed the requirement of celibacy for priests after a summit led by Pope Benedict XVI that was spurred by a married African archbishop who has been excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church."The value of the choice of priestly celibacy, according to Catholic tradition, has been reaffirmed," the Vatican said in a brief statement summing up the three-hour meeting of top Vatican prelates for "joint reflection" with the pope."The participants at the reunion were carefully briefed on the requests to receive dispensation from the obligation of celibacy that have been made in recent years and on the possibility of being readmitted to the exercise of the ministry of priests who now meet the conditions required by the church," the statement said....http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2006-11-16-vatican_x.htm?csp=34

America's top military commander in the Middle East on Wednesday warned the U.S. has only ''four to six months'' to secure Iraq before the country slips into chaos, but rejected the need for more American troops to end the violence. Gen. John Abizaid, in confrontational testimony before Congress, also warned lawmakers against setting a fixed timetable for the early withdrawal of U.S forces. ''The sectarian violence, if not brought under control soon, can actually destroy our hope for a stable Iraq,'' Abizaid told the House armed services committee. ''The situation could be bleak.'' The U.S. general's testimony followed a contentious two-hour session before the Senate armed services committee, where frustrated lawmakers pressed Abizaid for evidence of progress in Iraq. ''The American people do not want our troops caught in a crossfire between Iraqis if they insist on squandering that opportunity through civil war and sectarian strife,''...http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=ed50fb75-6113-4057-a619-d569c299322e

U.S. law enforcement agents seized documents from a broker and subpoenaed at least two insurance companies in a criminal investigation of whether banks and financial firms conspired to rig bids for investment deals with local governments. The probe by the U.S. Justice Department centers on guaranteed investment contracts, which municipalities buy to hold bond money until funds are needed to pay for projects. The contracts are what banks and brokers used to invest at least $7 billion of proceeds from bonds issued by local governments across the U.S.; that money was never spent to benefit the public, according to an Oct. 4 Bloomberg News report. ``There's a lack of transparency in the whole market,'' said Dan Veres, executive vice president of Grant Street Group, a Pittsburgh-based firm that conducts guaranteed investment contract auctions on its Web site. ``It is ripe for abuse, the whole process.'' ...http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aLH0AbrsGAk4&refer=exclusive